Holland. Holland, Michigan, that is.

Today we drove up north a bit to see the Tulip Time Festival Muziek Parade. It's been in existence for over 80 years and for the last three we've been there.

Holland is, as you can imagine with a name like that, very proud of its Dutch heritage. During the festival they have klompendancers, tulips, Dutch flags, Dutch provincial flags and other folklore. Oh, and Sinterklaas.
Dutch children have always been taught that Sint lives in Spain when he's not delivering presents to the good kids of the Netherlands, but I know better: he lives in Michigan.
It's all rather funny and quaint if you are really Dutch, and not second or third generation. Still, a good time is had by all, not in the least because of all the bands.
There is NOTHING that Americans do better than drumbands. Ever seen Drumline? It's really like that.
And, if you put a band in front of me I will stand there mesmerised until they have long stopped playing.

The weather was emphatically Dutch: rainy and windy. At times there was a gale force wind blowing all the klompendancers into a warming huddle, and the blankets that people had put along the main street to mark their territory were everywhere.

We were smart enough to get seats on the bleachers.

It was so bitter cold the parade seemed to fly by. Literally. Some of the younger bandmembers looked ready to drop, as the beloved said, and he thought he saw some crying. Flicker the dragon, last year also a victim of heavy winds, had sent his handlers out on their own, which led to some hilarity when audience members looked up like they were missing something, and handlers looked up and pretended to be surprised by the empty space above them. One of the Miss Somethings braved the cold in a strapless dress. The Miss Somethings in the cars behind her were wearing fake-fur. I'm sure strapless Miss had some choice words to say about that afterwards.

So, we shivered, laughed, watched, cuddled, ate some Dutch food, I ignored waving clowns (and Republicans), made plans to get bleacher seats a bit closer to where we parked the car, and took pictures until my memory card yelled at me that it was full. Then I deleted some and continued :)

I put everything on Picasa, in case anyone wants to dive in :)